Language Technologies for All – LT4All 2025

Sofiya Zahova, Director of the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, contributed a talk at the Language Technologies for All – LT4All 2025 conference, held from 24 to 26 February 2025 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. The conference, themed "Advancing Humanism through Language Technologies," highlighted the role of language technologies in safeguarding linguistic diversity and harnessing the power of multilingualism.

In her talk, Zahova presented the work of the Vigdís International Centre, particularly its contributions to the UN’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022–2032. As Iceland’s representative on the decade’s Steering Committee for 2024, she emphasised the significance of language technology in all aspects of language preservation, maintenance, and revitalisation –whether for language documentation, machine translation, or computer-assisted language learning. She also called for UNESCO-developed guidelines on the various applications of language technologies, particularly for communities with few speakers.

Sofiya Zahova, together with the other participants from Iceland, Jón Guðnason (Reykjavík University) and Óttar Kolbeinsson Proppé (Almannarómur / The Icelandic Centre for Language Technology)